Young business owners bring new life to historic Amador County.
A new generation of entrepreneurs is bringing this historic region into the present.
There’s no college in Amador County, which is important for one big reason: It makes it tough for young people who grew up there and want to pursue higher education to stick around. The primary job options for high school graduates have traditionally been in local schools, the wine industry and Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort.
But over the past few years, there’s been a notably steady flow of young adults moving, or returning, to Amador. They’re drawn by the climate, affordable housing, natural beauty and by a growing sense of community among the small, homey towns. They’re not only moving back — they’re also starting businesses.
“Amador has been on the brink of exploding,” says Justin Lewis, 24, who moved to Amador City to start a wine-tour transportation and guiding company in 2017. “It’s definitely had a lot of growth in the last 15 years. And to continue that — and I think that’s what the area wants — it’s going to have to have that new generation step up,” meaning establish themselves. And they have. Brothers Mike and Jeffrey Bligh, 37 and 34 respectively, relocated to Amador County from the Bay Area to open Ione Public House last spring. Twenty-six-year-old Dominic Vicari, a personal trainer who grew up in Jackson, started Motivate Personal Fitness Academy in 2014. Cara Agustin, who grew up in Pioneer and
moved away for college, returned to Amador and started a dance school in Sutter Creek called the Studio. Isy Borjón, 31, took over his parents’ winery and vineyard labor company in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife, Eliana. Brothers Travis and Jess Williams, 32 and 35 respectively, are now helping run their family’s Biggest Little Kitchen Store.
“What we’re seeing in a more solid way in the last three years is young people taking a chance and opening up unique businesses here,” says Maureen Funk, executive director of the Amador Council of Tourism. “Their business sense is adding new energy to our main streets, and then on top of that, they’re attracting their own generation to our area.”
The influx of young adults — many of whom are educated workers in their 20s and 30s — has been a boon to a county that’s experiencing a growth in tourism but struggling to offer enough facilities and hospitality to keep up, Funk says.
Ginger Budrick-Carter, 34, noticed the trend of young people taking up residence in the
county while she was working in a tasting room a couple of years ago. It inspired her to write a series of articles for the local newspaper, each of which featured a young person living and working in Amador County. She had recently moved back to Amador City, where she grew up, after spending more than a decade in other parts of California; learning about other young people who were making it there made her feel less isolated.
Encouraged by the people she met and wrote about, Budrick-Carter took the plunge herself, opening Small Town Wine Bar in November 2017. “There’s not a lot of large companies here, not a lot of large employers,” she says. “Everyone has to get pretty creative about making an income.”
Located on Main Street in downtown Amador City, Small Town Wine Bar is long and narrow, with an open kitchen and an antique bar. Budrick-Carter’s dad made the picnic tables that stand against one wall. The place serves small plates and appetizers with a focus on local and organic meat and produce, some of which comes from yet another new business from Amador Millenials, Upcountry Farms in nearby Jackson Valley.
Dan and Tori Crawford started Upcountry, an organic fruit, vegetable and flower farm in November 2016, and now tend 2 acres of land filled with seasonal produce in lush, farmable topsoil. Tori, 25, grew up in Pioneer, a small town in the upper elevations of Amador and met Dan, 27, in Chico, where neither of them studied farming, but both worked on organic farms.
“When I came back, I was really, really happy at how much had changed here. Young people are actually moving up here, people that have never heard of Amador County before,” says Tori. “You really can come up here and make it happen, whether that’s starting a family and buying an affordable piece of land or starting a business.”